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The wind blew softly through the open window of the cabin. Moonlight spilled across the wooden floor, pooling at the foot of the bed where Sasuke sat, his back pressed against the frame, knees drawn up. He stared out into the forest, into the quiet that had come after everything—after war, after vengeance, after too many goodbyes.
Naruto lay on the bed behind him, one arm hanging off the edge, breath slow and even. The sheets tangled around his waist. Sasuke could feel the warmth of him, even from here.
“You’re not sleeping again.”
Sasuke didn’t look back. “Neither are you.”
There was a rustle of sheets, then the creak of the bed as Naruto sat up, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He looked at Sasuke in the way only Naruto could—like he saw right through the silence, into the parts Sasuke didn’t show anyone else.
“Nightmares?” Naruto asked gently.
Sasuke shook his head. “No. Just... memories.”
Naruto stood and walked over to him, crouching beside him at the window. He didn’t press. He never did, not anymore. Instead, he just rested a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder. Solid. Present.
“You don’t have to carry everything by yourself,” Naruto said quietly.
The words sat between them, soft as the moonlight.
Sasuke finally looked at him. In Naruto’s eyes, he saw something that scared him more than death had—safety. Not the illusion of it, not the fleeting kind, but something real. Steady.
Naruto leaned in, their foreheads touching. “Nothing’s gonna hurt you, baby,” he whispered, and Sasuke almost laughed at the absurd sweetness of it—except it wasn’t absurd at all. It was everything he never let himself want.
He closed his eyes.
“I know,” he said.
The cabin held the silence like a secret. Outside, the world kept turning. But in that moment, in that room, there was only the hush of breath and the warmth of skin, and the echo of a promise made with nothing but truth behind it.
Sasuke leaned into him, letting his head rest against Naruto’s shoulder. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to.
Because for the first time in a long time, he believed it.